As many as 27 top cricketers ‘fixed’ matches in IPL-2: I-T

New Delhi/ Mumbai: The Indian Premier League hit another low on Friday after a special report prepared by I-T department exposed top cricketers and organizers of the cash rich league’s involvement in fixing the result of the matches played.

Shockingly, those involved in fixing the matches are superstars of Indian cricket and even an international player, who is a captain of one of the teams, according to a top official in Delhi who is part of the I-T team investigating the alleged IPL scam.

As many as 27 top cricketers’ role is being probed in connection with the betting-fixing racket, news channels reported claiming a top I-T officer.

In fact the role played by franchises owners have also been under serious scrutiny as I-T looked for more proofs around different franchises offices.

Probably in a worst of its kind in cricketing history, senior and junior cricketers playing in rival teams jointly fixed the outcome of matches, the official said.

Investigating teams from I-T and the Enforcement Directorate are analysing phone records of some of the franchises after match-fixing speculations. Investigators are checking the phone records of several personalities who had access to VIP enclosures during IPL matches.

One name which is mentioned prominently in the I-T report is of Samir Thukral, who, according to the report, "has an opulent lifestyle despite having no apparent source of income" and "carries out the betting on behalf of Lalit Modi where insider information as well as outcome fixing are hinted at".

The Indian cricket board (BCCI), which owns the IPL, has called a meeting of the tournament`s governing council on Monday to discuss what the media says is the biggest crisis in the sport since a match-fixing scandal of 2000.

Modi, fearing the axe from his own tournament, on Thursday said he would not attend the meeting, saying it was unauthorised and that he wanted a further five days to reply to the charges levelled against the league.

"If the meeting does go ahead on 26th April instead of 1st of May as I have asked, it will... be unofficial," Modi wrote to the BCCI in an e-mail that was made public.